Can games be documentary?

Defining documentary:

The Oxford dictionary describes documentary as the following: adjective 1consisting of or based on official documents:documentary evidence of regular payments from the company 2using pictures or interviews with people involved in real events to provide a factual report on a particular subject:a documentary programme about Manchester United noun (plural documentaries) a film or television or radio programme that provides a factual report on a particular subject.

Filmed documentaries have existed for a long time and have become a very popular form of entertainment. A documentary is factual and often seeks to inform the viewer of a situation, perhaps something they wouldn't normally hear about. They are supposed to be unbiased and simply informative but I think that increasingly documentaries are being used to persuade the audience of something. 


But can games be documentaries too? A documentary game would need to be factual and inform the player. Would this be effective in a medium which is seen by most as simply a way to escape reality and have fun. 


Social Realism.


[mass noun]

• the realistic depiction in art of contemporary life, as a means of social or political comment.
  
  

Social realism is a genre in film which is almost like documentary but instead of being purely factual it uses a basis of facts and real life experience to make something which is fictional. They are also filmed in a way which could be seen as a documentary. They are often made to make a comment on social or political issues.


An example of this is Abigail's Party (1977) directed by Mike Leigh. Abigail's Party was a social comment on the new middle classes of the 70's and although it was put across as a situation comedy it had a fairly serious subject and aim behind it. Although not completely factual it was based on fact and I think it's popularity was down to it being entirely believable. 


I think it would be easier on paper for video games to be social realism as opposed to documentary because although they are based on fact and a comment on the world around us they can be fictional. But could a game like this be effective?


Some games in these sort of genres have already been attempted. Some with more success than others.


JFK Reloaded

JFK reloaded is a "Historical Simulation" game which puts the player in the role of JFK's shooter. The player is scored on how closely they match the reports of the shooting. So the more historically accurate the shot fired is, the higher the score. 

The game's developers were quoted as saying that their intention was to "bring history to life" and "we genuinely believe that, if we get enough people participating, we'll be able to disprove, once and for all, any notion that someone else was involved in the assassination of President Kennedy"

The game was not received very well, particularly in America. David Smith (A spokesman for Edward Kennedy, the late president's brother and senator for Massachusetts at the time.) made the following statement: "It's despicable, there's really no further need to comment." The game was generally thought to be in bad taste.

Personally I think one of the main problems with video games tackling a subject such as this is that, generally, video games are regarded as light hearted and exist for the purpose of fun. I think this makes it harder for them to approach a serious or sensitive subject, such as the JFK shooting, because people think it is cheapening the subject or making light of it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2004/nov/22/usnews.games

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